Increasing Clinic Potential

Business Problem

Dr. Sebastiano’s Glendale Family Medicine Walk-in Care was operating as an urgent care clinic for 20 years, but being paid as a primary care practice. To be paid as an urgent care center, attract more patients, and collect more revenue, some changes were necessary.

Solutions

Outcomes

Evaluation by Practice Velocity to uncover and resolve reimbursement issues with insurance companies

Meaningful Use-ready from the first day of implementing Practice Velocity services

Ease of use, allowing clinic owner to monitor clinic status remotely

Urgent Care Reimbursement

A family medicine physician, Wayne Sebastiano, MD, needed to adjust the way he practiced medicine when he purchased a walk-in clinic in 1993. Dr. Sebastiano blended his family medicine and emergency medicine skills to support the patients who were already familiar with the clinic’s services as a walk-in. Over time, Dr. Sebastiano increased the level of acuity until he was essentially operating as an urgent care center but being paid primary care fees. Realizing a change was necessary, he applied for urgent care status. “We didn’t change the way we were doing medicine,” he said. “We just changed the way we were getting paid.”

Making the Switch

Dr. Sebastiano needed new tools to accommodate his new urgent care status. He required an electronic medical record and practice management system designed specifically for urgent care – a proven system to ease the transition to urgent care, and the adoption of an EMR. “Everyone I spoke with who had recently switched to an EMR said their volume went down, often by 30 percent,” said Dr. Sebastiano. “They had an EMR that took too long to learn, and they couldn’t see patients fast enough.”

The first month using Practice Velocity software, Dr. Sebastiano saw more patients than he had the same month one year prior. “Even in the first days of using VelociDoc, we didn’t slow down,” he said. “That’s amazing. Most physicians are unhappy with their EMR, but I’m delighted. The staff picked it up in no time, and it’s working out great for us.”

“The best thing about VelociDoc is I can go to bed at night and not ever worry about an audit. Everything is documented. I couldn’t be happier that I chose PV. I looked at 112 other software options. And PV just blew me away.”

— Wayne Sebastiano, MD, Glendale Family Medicine Walk-in Care

More Patient Visits, More Revenue

Transitioning to urgent care and increasing efficiency by using Practice Velocity urgent care software, Dr. Sebastiano expected to see some growth. He never expected to see his patient visits double. Prior to implementing Practice Velocity’s EMR and practice management system, Glendale Family Medicine Walk-in Care averaged 54 new patients a month. Nine months after implementing Practice Velocity software, the clinic averaged 136 patients per month, a 150% increase.

And growth continues. “Our new patients numbers keep going up and up,” said Dr. Sebastiano. “There’s plenty of room to grow. If the volume continues, I’ll hire more staff and expand hours. I won’t turn people away.”